Tsukuzuku to noki no shizuku o nagametsutsu hi o nomi kurasu samidare no koro

つくづくと軒の雫をながめつつ
日をのみ暮らす五月雨の頃

Roma-ji: Tsukuzuku to noki no shizuku o nagametsutsu hi o nomi kurasu samidare no koro
English Translation: Lost deep in my thoughts,
gazing at the eaves' raindrops
in the long, long rain,
I spend each day doing nothing
in this time of summer rains.
Meaning: Lost in thought, I gaze at the raindrops falling from the eaves through the long rains, and pass each day doing nothing else, in this season of early summer rain.
Commentary: Summer Poems 211

Headnote continued from the preceding poem: "Early summer rains"
This is the fifth of the early summer rain poems. In the endless rain, the poet gazes pensively at the drops falling from the eaves and lets the days go by doing nothing in particular. It conveys the idle hours of brooding in a dwelling shut in by the long rains.
Overlaying nagame, gazing in thought, with nagame, long rain, is a traditional technique dating from the Kokinshū, joining a brooding heart and unending rain in a single word. Where the preceding poems depicted the swollen waters outside, this one turns to the view from beneath the eaves, depicting a heart shut in by the rain.

First line, “tsukuzuku to”: pensively, deep in thought.
Second line, “noki no shizuku o”: the raindrops dripping from the eaves.
Third line, “nagametsutsu”: a pivot word joining nagame, gazing absently while lost in thought, and nagame, the long rains; tsutsu expresses continuing action.
Fourth line, “hi o nomi kurasu”: nomi limits it, doing nothing but passing the days.
Fifth line, “samidare no koro”: the poem ends on a noun, repeating the closing line of the earlier poems and leaving the tedium of the rainy season as an aftertone.
Author: Saigyō
Source: Sankashu
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